Show Me the Planets! NASA’s Search for Exoplanets and for Life in our Galaxy

Dr. Gary H. Blackwood Manager, NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology

February 2, 2019 The Queen’s Space Conference Queens University, Kingston, Ontario

© 2019 All rights reserved Artist concept of Kepler-16b There Are More Planets than Stars

“And on those other worlds, are there beings who wonder as we do?” - Carl Sagan

1 ex·o·plan·et [ˈeksōˌplanət]

a planet which orbits a star outside our solar system

2 NASA Highlights

Show Me the ^ Planets!

Search for Life in our Galaxy

Explore!

3 4 NASA Highlights

5 Where’s NASA? How is NASA Organized?

Mission Directorates: • Human Exploration and Operations • Science • Space Technology • Aeronautics Research

7 Moon to Mars

8 NASA Exploration Campaign

9 NASA Science Mission Directorate SOLAR JASD SYSTEM

HELIOPHYSICS ASTROPHYSICS

EARTH

10 NASA Key Science Themes

Discovering the Secrets of the Universe Searching for Life Elsewhere

Safeguarding and Improving Life on Earth

11 NASA Science Fleet

12 Science Mission Directorate

13 Parker Solar Probe A NASA Mission to Touch the Sun New Horizons at Ultima Thule (2014 MU69) “Beyond the Borders of the Known World”

15 16 GRACE Follow-On Tracking Earth’s Water Movement across the Whole Planet

GRACE Data 2002–2017

17 give the Red Planet its first thorough checkup since it formed 4 billion years ago

InSight Landing on Mars November 2018

18 Voyager 2 Enters Interstellar Space

19 20 SmallSat / CubeSat Fleet

21 Two Recent Cube Sats

ASTERIA MarCO Arcsecond Space Telescope Mars Cube One

22 Space Launch System

23 James Webb Space Telescope 2021 Launch

24 Mars 2020 July 2020 Launch

25 Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, California

26 Show Me the Planets! The Early Exoplanet Explorers How Many Exoplanets Are Confirmed?

?

?

30 Mamajek’s Law Doubling Time for Confirmed Exoplanets

Credit: NASA/JPL Eric Mamajek

31 How Are Exoplanets Named? Seeing an Exoplanet Is as Hard as… How Are Exoplanets Discovered? Two Popular Methods

Doppler Spectroscopy Transit (Radial Velocity)

34 Microlensing Method Another Way to Find Exoplanets

35 Where Are the Exoplanets?

36 When Were Exoplanets Discovered?

J S

E

Credit: Hugh Osborn 37 Kepler Mission: Three Key Results

1. There are more planets than stars in the galaxy

2. Small planets are common

3. Small planets in the Habitable Zone are common

38 A Familiar Habitable Zone

39 Habitable Zones Missing 0.4 from our solar 0.35 system

0.3

0.25

0.2 of Planets Star per Planets of

0.15

Number 0.1

0.05

Average Average 0

Planet Size (Earth=1) The Fulton Gap

Credit: Fulton et al. 2017 1962

2018

43 Trappist-1

45 Trappist-1 System The Richest Set of Earth-sized Planets Ever Found

46 Exoplanet Travel Bureau

48 Transmission Spectroscopy Sunny with a Chance of Clouds

49 TESS

Credit: George Ricker TESS Planet Predictions

52 ExoComm Exploring a Galaxy of Worlds while Inspiring Our Own

54 “Exoplanet Earth” Edition We Are a Leo Sun from Trappist-1

• S o l

55 56 The Search for Life in Our Galaxy

57 Are We Alone? Do We Understand Life?

NASA/Joyce Definition: “A self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution” Traits Common to Life on Earth

• Ordered structure • Reproduction • Growth and development • Response to environment • Homeostatis • Evolutionary adaptation • Energy utilization

60 What Is Essential for Life?

Source of Energy

Essential Elements

Solvent to Host Chemical Reactions

61 Extreme Environments Support Life

62 Exploring the Red Planet

Search for Technosignatures Probing the Atmospheres of Exoplanets Habitable Zone

67 Exoplanets in the Habitable Zone

68 HR 8799

69 Spectra of Our Solar System Planets

70 “Blue of the sky” measures total amount “Vegetation Earth’s Spectra of atmosphere jump” indicates Carbon dioxide presence of suggests possible land plants volcanic activity Methane indicates presence of anaerobic bacteria

Oxygen Water and ozone vapor were produced suggests by living organisms habitability Credit: M. Turnbull 71 Starlight Suppression

External Occulters (Starshades)

Internal Occulters (Coronagraphs)

72 73 Starshade (External Occulter)

74 Starshade Inner Disk Deployment

75 Starshade Optical Shield

76 A Simulated Image

78 Spectra Reveals the Type of Planet

79 WFIRST

JWST2

PLATO Missions TESS

Kepler LUVOIR5 CHEOPS 4

Spitzer Gaia

Hubble1 Starshade HabEx5 CoRoT3 Rendezvous5

OST5 NASA Non-NASA Missions Missions

W. M. Keck Observatory Large Binocular 6 1 WIYN 6 SMARTS 1.5m NASA/ESA Partnership Telescope 2 NASA/ESA/CSA Partnership 5 2020 Decadal Survey Studies 3 CNES/ESA Ground Telescopes with NASA participation 6 NSF Partnership (NN-EXPLORE) 4 ESA/Swiss Space Office Exoplanet Mission Concepts

Large Scale

Habitable Exoplanet Origins Space LUVOIR Observatory Telescope

Medium Scale Concepts Visionary

Starshade Life-Finder EarthFinder Rendezvous Interferometer https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics 81 Tau Ceti e Likely Rocky Super-Earth Orbiting a Nearby Sun-like Star

Credit: F. Feng, University of Hertfordshire 82 “Astronomers think that many stars besides the sun have their own planetary systems, and that some of these planets may support some form of life”

1962

83 Why Explore Exoplanets?

Sol

84 Explore! Sagan Exoplanet Summer Workshop Caltech, Pasadena CA

• Last Year: Did I really just find an Exoplanet?

• This Year: Astrobiology for Astronomers

86 On the Brink: Your Path to a New World!

• Canadian Space Agency

• Space Industry

• Universities: small satellites, interdisciplinary programs

• US universities => institutions like the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

87 Credit: Paramount Pictures “All these worlds are yours” - Arthur C. Clarke

89 exoplanets.nasa.gov

90 Acknowledgements

This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. © 2019 All rights reserved.